I do enjoy the occasional posts that come under the 'Reading habits' category, as our varying attitudes to all things bookish are fascinating. Today I'm wondering about editions of books, special or multiple:
Do you have more than one copy of any book, and if so, for what reason? Keen cooks often have a 'reading' copy of a particularly prized cookery book, kept safely away from spills and spatters, and a 'using' one in the kitchen, but are there other instances of this?
Do you keep different editions of a book for sentimental reasons, or because of a preferred cover design, clearer print, etc.? Many people dislike film tie-in versions of books, say, so may acquire a second copy of a title with a more attractive cover but keep the first one because .....
Or do you have a special edition of a book, and one you wouldn't part with, just because there's something unique about it? The book pictured here is an example of that. I've never read it, though I have often looked through it; it is an 1850 edition of Lockhart's Life of Scott which belonged to my grandfather, but it bears an inscription which shows that long before he came to own it it was given to a young man (whose name I can't quite decipher) "on the occasion of his leaving Eton" at Easter 1852, and the giver of this fine present whose youthful hand is on the flyleaf was Jane Austen's great-nephew Herbert Knatchbull-Hugessen.
Most of our books are nothing like as grand as this one, but even the humblest, most battered copy can have meaning beyond its text and therefore keep its place on the shelf. And on the subject of shelves, that's the reason we may not keep our 'second' copies - regardless of their importance to us - just because we haven't the space!
